origins

Werewolf Origins and History

In recent times, a 1978 book by Ian Woodward called THE WEREWOLF DELUSION: a thoroughly researched investigation into the werewolf, says that the Vikings may have brought werewolf folklore into the Americas and introduced it to Native American tribes.

But if you go back even farther, where did the belief in the werewolf come from before the Vikings brought it? It is thought that the werewolf originated in ancient Persia in paleolithic times (in other words, the stone age). But deciphering the past is no easy task and the artifacts and symbols that are discovered must also be deciphered.

Deciphering symbols or references to anything from the past that is discovered by an archeologist is not easy – especially when it pertains to the werewolf. Clues to what the symbol represents to the social patterns of the people that lived at the time must be considered. This possesses a problem for deciphering ancient symbols referencing man and wolf, and in some cases man as a wolf (aka werewolf). The structure of the people, culture, and environment, among many many other factors must be considered and deciphered, these clues to the past are clouded in current superstition, myth, and folklore.